Management of a computer network, even a relatively small one, can be daunting. A network manager or administrator is often responsible for ensuring that users' computers are operating properly in order to maximize productivity and minimize downtime. When a computer begins to function erratically, or ceases to function altogether, a user will often contact a system administrator for assistance. As explained in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/916,956, filed on Aug. 11, 2004 and published as US 2005/0038827 (“the '956 application”), there are significant labor costs associated with investigating, diagnosing, and resolving problems associated with individual computers on a computer network.
There may be any number of reasons why a given computer is not working properly, including missing or corrupted file(s) or registry key(s), “malware” (including viruses and the like), as well as user-error. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon that an information technology (IT) department of a typical organization lacks the resources or ability to receive notice of a reported problem regarding a given computer, thereafter investigate the same to identify a root cause of the problem, and then implement an appropriate fix/repair/correction for the given computer. As a result, instead of delving into the details of most reported computer problems, network managers and IT departments often resort to three common “brute force” methodologies to address reported problems:
Backups, wherein a full system or application is replaced with a previously stored backed-up version;
Golden Image, wherein all applications and data are reset back to a baseline configuration; and/or
Re-imaging, wherein all software is re-installed, anew, on the computer.
The foregoing “brute force” approaches to computer problem remediation, as those skilled in the art will appreciate, amount to blanket data replacement methodologies that are not responsive to fixing, e.g., a singular, specific problem on a given computer and, moreover, often result in many undesirable side effects for the computer user. For example, the user may experience loss of user customized settings, may have to work through a lengthy downtime period, or may wind up losing user data.
In light of the often critical importance of maintaining user data and avoiding unnecessary downtime, there is a need to provide a different approach to computer problem remediation.